In my recent Youtube video about the best ball vapes I show clips of me testing 17 different setups, and these are my thoughts about the experience...
All Ball Vapes Are The Best
If you're new to this stuff, all ball vaporizers have the same main components with slight variations in the types of materials used. There's a few types of balls that most of them use, with rubies being the most common, and we're gonna talk more about what these are actually made of.
All of the kits I tested also use one of four PIDs to control the temperature of the heaters, with the biggest difference between them just being the user interface.
I'll tell you right now up front that I haven't tried a bad ball vape, you can get good performance from any of them, so you'll want to focus on the other characteristics of each setup to determine which kit is the best for you.
Things to Consider When Purchasing
The first thing I think you should focus on is the size and shape of each bowl, which will determine how much you need to load and the types of rigs you can use them with. Some of the bowls are smaller and can work well with a micro-dose of 0.05g, but most of them are actually on the larger side and need at least 0.1g-0.15g minimum for optimal performance. All things considered, the bowls are the biggest difference between kits.
The other main things to consider are the look and feel, the price, and whether you want a wired or wireless setup.
The kits I've tested range in price from about $200 to $600, so you'll need to decide how much you want to comfortably spend. The performance of the $600 kits is not necessarily better than the performance of the $200 kits, so the price alone doesn't determine what your experience will be with each one.
As far as wired vs. wireless setups, this is mainly a matter of convenience and the type of interface you prefer. The wired kits tend to be cheaper, with the main downside being an extra wire across your desk. Wireless setups typically have a smaller footprint and allow you more flexibility with where everything is positioned. One argument against wireless setups is that they require a heat soak in between draws to get back up to temp, but I haven't found this to be real issue during normal usage, because most users naturally pause for at least 30 seconds between hits.
I Did a Blind Test to Compare Performance
This may be a controversial take, but I think that performance, vapor quality, taste, smoothness, and strength are all very similar between these kits, so you shouldn't decide on those factors alone.
Don't get me wrong, after testing 17 of them I do think there are slight differences in how they function, with some of them feeling slightly smoother and some of them having a slightly more complex taste. But for the vast majority of users I would consider this hard to decipher.
I say this because I did a blind test with a handful of setups and had a lot of trouble picking out which one was which. I was honestly surprised by this, because normally it does seem like I can tell the difference in the vapor between them. But blindfolded and with ear plugs in the hits I was taking kind of blended into each other.
Doing this test confirmed for me that performance alone is not the way to rate these or give recommendations, you really need to consider the other aspects.
Big Clouds For All
Anyway, you'll notice in these clips that it's pretty much cloud city with all of them, there isn't one model I've tried that can't give you strong rips.
It really doesn't matter what type of rig you use them with either, I tried to vary it with all of the kits I tested and found very little differences between them, it's really just personal preference. I didn't take any clips of it but you can even use a simple j-hook with these and still get great results.
Heater Materials Used (Ti, SS, Quartz)
The other thing you'll notice is that almost all of the heater housings are titanium or stainless steel, but there is an aspect of them that doesn't show up in a features list, and that is how thick or dense the metal is.
Out of the models I tested, the heaters that weigh more and have thicker walls are generally the ones that produced slightly smoother vapor. Again, being blindfolded is a different story, but under normal conditions I did seem to notice these feeling a tiny bit smoother. Examples would be the Hornet, All-Star, Aether and Flower Kettle.
If the absolute best flavor is what you're after, the quartz setups seem to have a very slight edge, with examples being the Universal Baller and the Natural. I consider the flavor to be excellent with every ball vape I tested, there just may be a small difference with the quartz ones.
Different Types of Balls (Ruby, Gem-Cut, Sapphire)
As far as the types of balls used in each heater, the main difference is really just the draw resistance. Smaller types like 2mm rubies and gem-cuts are more tightly packed inside the heater, resulting in slightly lower air flow. This isn't inherently bad, because a slow draw can have benefits like slightly denser or smoother vapor. As far as any taste difference between the types of balls, I consider it negligible and very hard to discern.
Some heaters have 4mm balls which is pretty much the max size you'll see, and most have 2.5mm-3mm balls which provides a nice balance.
Now the slightly confusing part is that "ruby" balls are not actually made from natural rubies. The material they're made of is called synthetic corundum, and it's available in a few different colors, with "ruby" referring to the red ones and "white sapphire" being the clear ones. So we're using the term ruby instead of just saying red. There are other types of balls out there as well, like quartz and ceramic for example, and with most of these kits you're able to swap out the balls to whatever you prefer.
You'll also notice that some of the heaters are considered diffusors and some are called injectors. Diffusors cover the entire bowl and injectors go inside of them. From my experience it doesn't really make a difference which type it is, both types are in my favorites and some heaters can even be used either way.
Stock Handles Can Be Lacking
Another characteristic you may want to also consider is the type of handles each kit comes with, the ones that attached to the heaters and bowls. Most of the wireless setups shown in this video do not have the stock handles on them, I replaced them with aftermarket ones that are bigger and look much nicer than the stock ones, and it's easy to do this yourself.
My Ball Vape Criticisms
Now there is one main criticism I have that goes for all of the ball vapes I've tested, and that is their low power efficiency. Virtually all of them use e-nail coils in various configurations to heat up the heads, which works great but is not always using the power efficiently. The balls are being heated from the outside in, instead of being heated internally. Only half of the heat produced by the coil is utilized, the inner half, and the rest of the heat dissipates into the air. Performance wise this doesn't matter, but it's worth noting that with almost all ball vapes you are wasting some power.
The other thing I'm not thrilled with is the PID that comes with a lot of these kits. The controllers have somewhat of an annoying interface when it comes to changing temperatures. My preferred PID would be the Auber since it has the dial on it for easy adjustments.
How to Choose the Best Ball Vape
So in summary, if you're shopping for a ball vape and don't know what to get, focus on these four things: 1) wired or wireless, 2) bowl size that matches your usage, 3) you like the way it looks, and 4) it fits your budget.
If you wanna know what my personal favorites are based on my own usage and preferences, those would be the io Hornet, All-Star, Universal Baller, Aether, Flower Kettle and Phase3 ZX.
There is one ball vape that I decided not to include in this video, and that is the G43 that I created in 2018, which was one of the first vaporizers to use balls as part of the heating element. This was before the ball vape category ever existed. The G will be making a comeback soon, so keep an eye out for updates in the near future.
I livestream on Youtube and Twitch at 2pm ET if you have any questions, I'm more than happy to help you out!
Stay up!
-Bud